During the six months of Teen Training, we didn't see Grandpa all that much throughout the day, as he had his work to do and we were busy with our day-to-day lives. However, he continued to come to dinner a few times a week and would often give a talk. He also had some afternoon Bible classes with us. Those were special. I don't remember every single talk he gave, and I don't remember every single class as there were quite a few, though some I remember quite well.

Some of the talks and classes he gave us later came out as Mo Letters. I have excerpted a few quotes from some of the talks that I remember the most in order to weave them in to my accounts. What he says in these excerpts typify the type of input and training he gave us, and the things he taught us, covering such topics as safety, witnessing, the Endtime, and hearing from God.

After Kristy had played birdie with Grandpa one day and had gotten hit in the chin by an errant birdie racket in the hand of her partner, Dad gave us the following talk on safety and caution while playing sports: "Play it Safe!—A Lecture on Birdy Safety!"

Now what has been my criterion about accidents? What is my favorite saying about accidents? (Fam: Make it impossible for an accident to happen!)—Do your best to make it impossible for an accident to happen! Avoid the conditions and the circumstances that lead to accidents! If you see a glass sitting near the edge of the table, make it impossible for it to get knocked off the table by putting it somewhere else. If you see anything in a dangerous position, or in a position where somebody might accidentally hit it and knock it off or step on it or whatever it might be, although people might be able to avoid it, make it impossible for the accidents to happen!

I want to remind some of you that we don't play birdy just to win! We're not out there playing just to make points. The point is not as valuable as the people! And winning is not the point! Winning is not the thing you're out there for, you're out there for a good vigorous exercise!

So pray, number one, and not only pray but continue to pray and be careful and prayerful about trying to jump all over the place and "slide Kelly slide" and all that kind of stuff! You may prove yourself to be a champ and kill somebody in the process, including yourself! So stick to your own court! Try to just hit the birdies that you're pretty sure are going to land in your court, and for God's sake, don't run out of your court into somebody else's court!...If you're not very prayerful and careful and really watch your step and your swing, you could give somebody a permanent injury that you'll be sorry for and they'll be sorry for, for the rest of their lives!

We're not out there for vanity and to show how well we can play and how smart we are and how athletic we are and what a good sport we are and what a great winner we are and all that, you're out there to get good exercise to save your life, not end it or hurt it! Is that clear? Okay! I don't want to hear of any more accidents out there, God willing! I want you to pray before you get out there and I want you to make sure the court is safe and dry, as dry as possible.

I'm sorry I haven't had more fellowship with you here, but I must confess that I made the Lord a promise when I was dying that if He would save me I would try to spend some more time with you. That was one of the things I was confessing and which I felt guilty about, that I hadn't spent enough time with you. You are more important than anything except my work for the rest of the World. So even if it's inconvenient and it's the wrong schedule and the wrong time, you're here! So it's better that I have fellowship with you so that I can make sure my own flock is intact and happy and all right and see the state of my flock and make sure you're okay. I get a lot of reports and I hear constant running accounts of how you're getting along, but I like to see you! GBY!

(ML #2082:9,12,28,66,83)

During Christmas of '85 Grandpa spent Christmas dinner with us. At one point in the evening he went around the table and asked everyone to recount their most memorable Christmas. He gave a talk that was later entitled, "The Happiest Christmas!"

A memory is a wonderful thing to have, to be able to remember these past wonderful Christmases and many other very happy memories. And there may come a time when you will look back and those may seem to be the only happy memories you have. Things may get to where there's not too much to be happy about, except the Lord and knowing His coming's very near. Even the Lord Himself in His Word said, "Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them." (Ecc.12:1)

But remember, even when the evil days come, even if you don't seem to have as much pleasure in them any more, one thing they can't take away from you is your happy memories! You're not to live in the past in that sense, you're to forget the things that are behind and press on to the things that are before (Phil.3:13), but that is one of the comforting things that the Lord does give you to keep forever, the happy memories of the past, and I think He expects you to enjoy those. You can look back and remember happy times of the past.

And in the Heavenly stories we're trying to remind you how wonderful things can still be even during the tribulation, and in some ways even more so!—Because I believe we're going to be even greater and more powerful witnesses! God is going to do many more mighty miracles for us to preserve us and provision for us and take care of us and protect us, I really believe it! Although it will be our time of greatest trial and testings in some ways, "to purge and purify us and make us white," He says, that will be one of the blessings of it, that we will get rid of a lot of our sometimes foolishness and we will really get down to business with the Lord and appreciate and value the things that are most important of all, and appreciate even small blessings. Amen?—Even little blessings.

Bless each and every one now, Lord. Keep all of us safely tonight, give us a good night's rest. Many have been very weary, we've had a baby recently and lots of people are tired. Bless and strengthen Sara and heal her completely after her good work, Lord, and hard work bringing this forever soul into Thy Kingdom for ever and ever and ever and ever, this precious little angel that You sent from Heaven. Bless this baby and make her a blessing, she's already a blessing, Lord! She's already touched many hearts and the children have so enjoyed her and it's going to be such good training for them taking care of her, Lord, as they train themselves to be mothers.

Bless and keep us all, give us a good night's sleep, Lord, and help us never to forget this Christmas until we have our greatest and most blessed and most wonderful Christmas of all with You, Lord, forever to look forward to, where we can forget the past and just live for the Future in Thy Kingdom, in Jesus' name! TYL! PTL! Amen, GBY all! I love you!

(ML #2069:6,11,14,21-22,24)

On New Year's Eve, Grandpa again came to dinner. My dad shared the news and the Family's statistics from the year, and then Grandpa gave a stirring inspirational talk which was later titled, "Show'm Jesus—Dad's New Year's Message for 1986!"

But the biggest event as far as God's concerned is you!—Us!—And He's running the World in your favor, really, as long as He can. As far as He's concerned, all World history hinges on you and what you're doing and what you're accomplishing and how far you're getting along with your job. And if He allows the Antichrist to arise this year and his kingdom to begin and the Crash and all of that, and if it should by any means limit our ministries in any way—which I'm hoping it will not, at least for awhile—but if it should, as I think I've told you before, you should count it a compliment, because it means you have gotten the job done and you're finishing it up! Therefore He can now allow these events to begin to happen, which may more or less end our public ministries and the freedom we have enjoyed.

We are a privileged generation!—Privileged to perhaps go through the worst time in all World history, perhaps even privileged to suffer for the Lord and for our ministry and for the Gospel! But also privileged to watch the Endtime events develop and to see the Coming of the Lord! Think of that! We're the only generation in all history that will witness that event!—Except for the great cloud of witnesses in Heaven. (Heb.12:1) But in these physical bodies we're the only generation that will experience the Coming of the Lord, because we know it can't go any longer than that.

As He said, "The generation which sees all these things come to pass" shall what?—"Shall not pass away until all these things shall be fulfilled!" (Mat.24:34) And we have seen all the signs the Lord prophesied to come before His coming happen in this generation, including the Gospel preached through all the World. The Gospel now has been preached in all nations to all peoples everywhere! Countries that were even closed to the Gospel when I was young are now open to the Gospel. So PTL! "Greater things than these shall ye do!" Certainly greater things than these shall ye see if these endtime events begin to happen now!—Because there's every sign that they are going to happen soon! PTL!

Now don't say that if the Antichrist doesn't arise this year that I was a false prophet. I have qualified every single thing that I've said about the future, "That is my opinion, this is my reasoning, this is my interpretation, this is how I see it,"

Most of our faith today is not built on what we have seen! The point I'm trying to show you is that our faith is not built on any supernatural, miraculous manifestations of the spirit world! The Lord is requiring this generation and most of the World's population since the beginning of time, to believe by faith in His Word, just to believe the Word, just to believe what He said. "Faith comes by hearing the Word of God"—today! (Rom.10:17) Faith in the Millennium will be coming by not only hearing the Word of God, but seeing! You'll see the Kingdom of God on Earth! Nobody will have to convince you then that there's a God and that Jesus Christ His Son is the King of kings ruling the World, you will see the evidence of it on every hand.

But more blessed are ye, who though having not seen, yet have believed! (Jn.20:29) That is a principle of the spiritual Kingdom of God, that He is going to bless those who have simply believed by faith in the spirit and the Spirit World and all things spiritual, including the death of Christ for you. You weren't there at the cross, you didn't see it happen, you don't know anything about it except somebody told you.

The only way you can be saved today is by the Word, God's Word! He's requiring of this generation and all former generations that they be saved just by believing Him and His Word. But the Millennial Kingdom will come and that era of faith and belief will come even by having seen. But they will not have as great a blessing as you have, because you believed though having not seen.

I'm trying to show you that that's one of the basic fundamental principles of the operation of the spiritual kingdom of God and the spirit world, that you must believe though having not seen, even though maybe you didn't have a dream or any kind of spiritual manifestation whatsoever that there was any spiritual thing going on at all. You just heard somebody tell you the Gospel about the Love of Jesus, maybe they showed you the Love of Jesus too, in their life, in their face, in their deeds, and you believed.

Lots of people say, "I see a light on your face! I see something in you that I've never seen before!" That's the one little confirmation God gives. Someone has said, "You can't prove God, you can't prove God exists, you can't put God in a test tube and prove to me that God is." I want to tell you right now, I'm looking at a whole roomful of test tubes! And we have put God in you, or He's put Himself in you, and you are the living, visible proof that there is a God, just like His Creation! But you go even beyond that. Just your very bodies are the proof that there's a God! But your love, the light in your eyes and on your faces and the wonderful spirit that people feel from you, proves not only that there's a God, but that God loves them.—You're the proof!

Every one of you is the living proof of salvation! You're all test tubes that prove not only that there's a God, which even the whole World can just see by His Creation and see there's a God, but that Jesus saves! They can look at you and see the living proof, you're the living test tubes! But not everybody in the World has had that opportunity, not everybody in the World has ever heard the Gospel. They may have heard of Jesus but they don't really understand who He was or what He did or anything. If we don't reach them now, they'll get a chance in the Millennium. But they won't be as blessed as you are and as the ones you're reaching now with the Gospel.

That's the word the Lord has for you as we begin this new year! I want you to remember that if you don't remember anything else, if you don't even remember the stats from last year. But I hope you do, just to encourage your heart to know that we really are accomplishing something. But I want you to remember that the only thing that people are going to see to help prove to them that there's a God and there's a Jesus and there is Love is what they see in you! And the only Word they're going to get and pay any attention to is the Word they hear from you.

(ML #2074:15,17-19,47,50-52,58-59,66-67)

In January of 1986, Grandpa got quite ill. That is when we started doing prayer vigils for him. He was quite sick and it was fairly sobering as we weren't sure if he was going to be taken from us then. While he was sick, we started having all-day prayer vigil chains for his healing. One person would pray for half an hour and then another person would pray for half an hour. That way there was always someone praying for him. When he got extremely sick, the prayer vigil chain would go through the night, though we young people only took our prayer vigil time during the day.

One day, shortly after he had recovered, he came down with a heart problem which he had had in his earlier years—paroxysmal tachycardia—which is what they call fibrillating, a nervous heart that beats twice as fast as normal. The Lord showed him that he should gather the Home together and publicly ask for prayer.

He seemed weak and pale when he came down the stairs into the living room where we were gathered. He quietly explained his request, which took some time, as he looked like he was experiencing a lot of physical discomfort. He had to stop at intervals to rest and compose himself. He then got down on his hands and knees while we all laid hands on him, desperately praying for the Lord's healing. After Maria prayed the prayer of faith, she asked if anyone had received from the Lord any verses or passages. Various ones shared the verses they had received, after which he touched on the topic of his death and how the Family would continue when he was gone.

We witnessed a miracle of healing that day. As he sat talking, the irregular beating of his heart stopped and he grew visibly stronger by the minute, till by the time he left, he was quite his usual self.

PTL! GBY all! How are you? It seems like a long time since I've seen you all together. But I need your prayers right now, my heart is acting up a little and I just thought it would be good to have you all lay hands on me, and if you have any oil we could anoint me with oil. The Scripture says, "Is any among thee sick?" Well, there are lots of Scriptures on healing and we usually just lay hands on the sick, that's what it says in one Scripture. (Mk.16:18) But in another one it says, "Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, anointing him with oil, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up. And if they've committed sins, they shall be forgiven them." (Jam.5:14-16)—And I've got lots of those to be forgiven for. PTL!

(After Maria prays)

(Maria: Did anyone get anything from the Lord?) (John: I got the verse, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.") (Fam: I got, "This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and delivered him from all his troubles." And "Jesus Christ maketh thee whole.") (Fam: "I have been young, and now am old, yet have I never seen the righteous forsaken"—just that part, "I have never seen the righteous forsaken".) Thank you, that was a good one. (1Jn:1:9; Psa.34:6; Acts 9:34; Psa.37:25)

In relation to John's verse, I guess as some of you know, sometimes I drink too much, which I shouldn't, and it abuses my body so that the Lord's gotta help me be delivered and not drink so much, in Jesus' name. Amen. TYL! Amen! Anybody else have anything? (Faithy: I got, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.") (Heb.13:8)

PTL! Hallelujah! At least I'm still alive and I got this far! PTL! I've been hoping and praying I could at least make it to my birthday next month. PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ! Lord, we fulfilled Thy Word and called for the elders of the church. They're all elders here in a way, Lord, and they've laid hands on us, Lord, and anointed us with oil and now You have to do the rest of it, Lord. We know they're prayers of faith, and it says then that, Lord, You will raise him up! TYJ! "And the Lord shall raise him up!" Hallelujah! That's Your promise, Your part of the bargain, Lord, Your part of the contract, TYJ! PTL! So my life is in Thy hands, Lord, we're in Thy hands and You're the One that has to do the miracle, what we can't do, in Jesus' name. PTL! Hallelujah! TYL!

Well, I didn't come down here to preach you a sermon, I came down here to ask for prayer. But I'm just sharing with you a few little lessons that I'm learning. And the day will come, the time will come. It seems like we're never really prepared for it as we should be, there are always things left undone and unfinished, and there are these lovely Family meetings to remember and your personal fellowship and all the good times we've enjoyed together. PTL!

Whatever happens you'll just keep right on going and you'll keep right on working and things will hardly be changed at all! Because it's still the Lord's work and we've still got lots to do and lots of people to help and lots of Word still to get out. I'm so thankful that we have at least prepared some of you for carrying on. So PTL! So there'll hardly be a hitch because you've got everybody here that you need and you've got lots of Word and you've been fed a lot and you have the Lord. PTL?

I feel much better! If you'd have told me I was going to sit here and talk to you, I'd have told you you're crazy, but the Lord really has touched me! But keep praying, I could still be better yet. PTL? But as you can see from the Story [Heaven's Girl], you'll carry right on, and the World will carry on—it certainly does carry on, that's for sure—and God's work will carry on, you'll carry it on, and the Lord will be just as real as ever. He'll be just the same, maybe even closer in a way, and feel closer. Because once I'm out of the way, then you'll have to deal with the Lord and you won't have me to go through any more! Get the point? You won't be able to look to me once I'm gone, so you're going to have to look to the Lord, praise the Lord?

("Prayer for Dad and Future Farewell!" (ML #2086:1,6-8,29,32,49)

Another class of note was a talk that became the Mo Letter, "What Did You Do Today to Save a Soul?"

You never thought that maybe washing a dish you might be saving a soul?—Or setting the table you might be saving a soul? Think of it that way!—Or washing the baby's diaper. Well, you know you're saving her little soul anyway, at least her little bottom. But fixing something around the house or out there washing dishes, you could be saving souls! Because you're helping our whole Worldwide Work to save souls by whatever little job you're doing. Amen?

Maybe you never thought all those times you took care of Mary Dear that you were not only saving Mary Dear's soul, but you were saving other souls, because you were saving dear Dora and Sara, helping them. Now you teens are doing those things. Aren't you glad you've got more helpers now? One girl had to do all those things all by herself, but more hands now make light work! TTL! Aren't you glad you've got those teenagers? I know they're a lot of trouble, but nevertheless....I'm only kidding, I haven't heard of any trouble at all! They're sitting there thinking, "Oh, did Sara tell him?" So I had to tell you real quick that Sara hasn't told me! She might have told Mama. (Maria: But Mama hasn't told Papa!) So if you have any problems, they haven't told me. See how they want to protect me and help me to continue to think you're absolute angels?—That you never do anything wrong, you never say a bad naughty word, you never even think something wrong! I'm afraid we'd all be guilty!

What could you have been doing that might have saved a soul? That's a better question instead of asking what's the most fun thing you did today. What did you do today that could have saved a soul? (Fam: I took care of Mary Dear.)—Fine. Sara? (Sara: I was with the kids. We had good MO Letter time this morning, it was real feeding. We read "Hamburger Boat Dream.") (ML #340) How about that! My oh my, that's an old-timer!

Well, you see, whatever you do in word or in deed, He says, do all to the glory of God! (1Cor.10:31) You say, "I wasn't doing it for the glory of God, I was just taking care of Mary Dear because Mama said I had to!" Well, you obeyed, therefore you're keeping His commandments, therefore you're glorifying the Lord, even when they ask you to do something you don't like to do or don't want to do. But you do it! That's for the glory of God. You glorify the Lord by obeying and being respectful to your elders and doing what they tell you to do. And if you're glorifying the Lord, then you're helping this house to function in whatever way, you're helping the whole World and all those people out there to save souls. How many souls do we win a day? I remember it's two every three minutes, something like 60,000 a month, a couple of thousand a day!

So whatever you did, you were helping to save souls!—When you were taking care of the baby or the children or doing maintenance work. So if you help anybody in that way, you're helping the Family, our Family right there, and whatever you do to help this Family helps our worldwide Family. Whatever you do that is needed to be done here and helps this Family helps our whole worldwide Family. And what are they doing? (John: Saving souls!)